World in a Room Project

For this project we were briefed to create a short film with narrative with a stop motion model and computer generated 3D model. Though these are two seemingly different types of animation, they share similar methods and techniques to create the illusion of movement and life.

Before starting any animation production, however, I had to come up with an idea- a narrative- which would drive the story. Why was one character knocking the door? What were the emotions going through these characters' heads? How did they show these? How did the environment show these?
These were the questions that had to be answered before starting production. Initially I found this stage difficult, and spent a day or two literally looking into a blank sketchbook. In order to rectify this, I read over the brief again which helped pick out important points such as the fact that the CGI character knocking on the door and the stop motion character opening it. This helped me get a starting point in order to create a story.

My first thought was 'Why was the character knocking?' which then lead to 'How were these two characters feeling?' I put these ideas down on paper in order to try and figure out what to do. This allowed me to compare different ideas and reflect on how effective they would be. One piece of advice from Cartoon Saloon animator Nuria Gonzalez-Blanco is that in order to create good quality animation, a solid storyboard should be created before going into production.

I chose the idea of creating a knock knock joke for two reasons: 1) I wanted to create some sort of communication between the characters in a humorous way and 2) I wanted to push the boundaries of what defines a "knock" in the brief. After writing the story in short hand note form, I then created a rough storyboard out of small thumbnail-sized boxes in my sketchbook to allow me to visualise quickly how the film would look.

After reviewing it with Alan, and deciding that I was satisfied with the overall narrative, I created a neater, easier to read animatic which allowed me to get a sense of timing and what sound effects could be used. The animatic proved very useful in setting up how things would cut from one scene to the next without it being too jarring.

Now that my storyboard and animatic were finalised, I was ready to begin the animation process. To begin I started with the CGI scenes, using the program Maya 2016 with the model Norman, a simple rigged character that can be easily animated using several controls. I've had previous experience with the stop motion armature provided whilst putting together my storyboard in order to visualise the set and how the character moves with its joints and the size of its body parts. I found that moving Norman was a similar process to moving the armature- the controls functioned similarly to the joints of a model. I found that CGI animation was more enjoyable of the two possibly due to my own bias- I am interested in working more with 3D digital animation and modelling for future projects due to the technical freedoms of not having to need specialist machinery and equipment other than a decent computer and software, and that I can create things that otherwise couldn't exist in the real world due to limitations such as the laws of physics.

This was my first time using a full set including lighting and a moving camera, so it took me some time to get used to the equipment. To start out Izzy and I created a small walk cycle to both practice how to use the equipment (particularly armature, lighting, and software) and to add to the Walk Cycle project, before beginning the filming of this project.

(Some examples of testing the lighting)

I also had to create a set of props for the armature to use, such as a piece of paper and a stereo. The paper was simple enough, only needing two different coloured pens to create text as I filmed, but the stereo took a couple days to perfect. Neil helped me to cut out a scrap block of wood into a rough shape of a rectangle that I had drawn onto it. I then experimented with several methods, such as painting the details on with white acrylic paint, to calving the details out with a lino cutter and sand paper, to just drawing them on with a pen. I found that the paint, while looked nice, may bot be so obvious when in the lighting of the set. I then attempted to 'embellish' the speakers and buttons by physically cutting them out of the wood with a lino cutter and sandpaper, however this became too tedious when dealing with the small details such as buttons and the tape player. However it did give a smooth overall shape to the stereo which I felt meant that this method had some success and I could probably use it again when dealing with other, larger props, perhaps with a softer wood, for different projects. In the end I used a black pen to draw out the shapes and textures onto the wood as it was the simplest and boldest method of the three, meaning it would be easy to see and recognise that the wood was a stereo.

(Still from the film with the stereo)

Though stop motion animation is a technique I do not particularly find interesting, I enjoyed the experience of this project nonetheless. It allowed me to experiment with the idea of combining two types of animation, and therefore I had to learn how to work with stop motion, CGI, and editing it all together. Though during the group crit session I would have wished for a more positive response, I am still proud of this first piece of narrative I have made before. One thing I would improve on is the consistency of the narrative, as it does seem to fall apart near the end, such as it being unknown what was causing the knocking- if I had the knowledge I would have liked to put a Norman figure banging on the window, but this is something I believe I could learn to do for the next project. Though I wanted to try and make sure that the story was solid before getting into animation, I was unsuccessful in this- next time I could possibly have classmates as well as tutors check that the story makes sense  by making them watch the animatic. I also found that whilst animating I changed the story slightly- this could possibly have been my downfall due to the fact that though the ending wasn't the best in the animatic, at least it was a prepared ending and not something I had to make up on the spot.

Some stop motion shots, such as those with the camera and a object moving, I found very satisfying to watch as one of the main difficulty I find with this technique of animation is the need to have every shot perfect before moving onto the next one in order to prevent backtracking and deleting several shots in order to correct a frame. Since this is not as big of a problem with digital styles of animation, I preferred having the ability to stop and return to a scene and being able to spot and correct problems, such as the movement of Norman's walk in the opening scene- initially he seemed to glide over to the door, but I was able to figure out how to give his footsteps weight by moving him between each main keyframe of his walk cycle.

Overall I am content with what I have produced but I am willing to improve my work and prove to myself and the class that I can produce better in the next project.